Top 10 Annoying TV Commercials

Is this genius marketing or a way to guarantee that people stop going to Quiznos? It’s hard to say, but we do know that it’s tough to listen to and even harder to look at, even for the ad’s thankfully quick 30-second runtime. These deformed creatures may look a bit like rats but they are actually known as spongmonkeys, which we guess means they’re some sort of primate. Although that’s slightly better than having your restaurant associated with rodents, their shrill voices, googly eyes and Gollum-like grins are enough to make you quickly change the channel, and look for somewhere else to eat.

We’d like to tell you where to stuff this... There’s nothing like a bit of repetition to really drive the message home that you should be buying a Stuffie. Sure, with all the secret pockets and cute animal designs, it’s a relatively novel concept. But the tongue twister used to sell it and its preachy tagline of “it’s what’s inside that counts!” just grind on you in a way a toy ad should not. Even if your kid doesn’t want a Stuffie, he or she will undoubtedly be repeating this ad’s question over and over until the word “stuff” completely loses its meaning.

While we can appreciate Yoplait’s effort to make drinkable yogurt appealing to teenagers, the brand inadvertently ruined a classic song about apartheid in South Africa while trying to push their product. The hook from the reggae hit ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’ is reworked to “Gimme Yop me Mamma” and then sung by sleepy teens with warped mouths and exaggerated Caribbean accents. Teenagers struggling with the early morning blues might relate to the ad - especially ones who sleep on the toilet - but for everyone else, it’ll make you feel as sick as someone who downed too much Yop.

Under no circumstances should you get on a bus with a suspicious dancing grandpa, unless of course he says he’ll take you for a brilliant day out at Six Flags. Don’t waste time asking your parents, just go, kiddies! (We’re kidding – if you’re under 18, get permission first). In these series of Six Flags commercials from 2004-2005, the gyrating geriatric was meant to promote the theme park. For some reason, a lot of people seemed to love his moves to the Vengaboys’ ‘90s dance-pop tune, but when he kept showing up in ad after ad, the initial novelty quickly wore off. Though he did reappear in 2009, his popularity as a mascot has been – thankfully - mostly limited to him becoming a well-known meme with his face replaced by others from the World Wide Web.

The British financial services comparison website that first introduced fictional Italian tenor Gio Compario – played by Wynne Evans – may have created a monster. But they also got some seriously good press out of it. Gocompare.com’s campaign was voted as the most annoying ad for two years running after the viewing public grew tired of Gio Compario’s aggressive singing and general nuisance value. Oddly enough, this isn’t even the last annoying opera commercial on our list, which we think is a cue to advertisers to maybe take a pause on the genre. Geez, no wonder Stephen Hawking sent him into a black hole.

We all appreciate the miracles of modern medicine, but no one will ever be more appreciative than this guy; he just can’t get enough of his favorite cholesterol medication. In these ads, he dances around his living room and celebrates wildly at the bowling alley like he’s a hardcore Denver Broncos fan – but in actuality, the colors he’s sporting are not for the NFL team – because, you know, that’d be crazy. No, everything in his house is outfitted in the orange and blue of Crestor - even his poor little pooch! The looks on his wife and son’s faces sum up how we feel perfectly: dude, what are you doing?! We were not surprised to learn that his family does not appear in all the commercials.

We’ve always wanted to get inside the head of man’s best friend, and this Purina ad for a chewy dog treat allows us at least a glimpse into the psyche of a dog. What’s revealed is that canines, or at the very least golden retrievers, love them a strip of bacon. A lot of dogs will eat pretty much anything, so we can’t say whether these strips actually taste like bacon (without tasting them of course), but one thing we can say for sure is that this talking pooch is unforgettably… annoying! Breakfast time will never be the same if you find that you can’t stop screaming “It’s BACON!!!”

Are you looking for a new way to torture yourself? If so, this jingle for a car donation charity is exactly what you’re looking for. First appearing on radio before moving to TV, Kars4Kids’ jingle catches you when you’re least expecting it, and subjects you to its quasi pop-country theme. As you can imagine, this car leaves us feeling pretty bad for the kids. No, not the kids who need the “kars;” the kids who are forced to sing this inane tune over and over. You can’t begrudge a charitable organization for trying to do good, but did they have to hurt our ears even more with a ‘hard rock’ remix later on?

Like we hinted at earlier, it’s fair to say that the most annoying genre of commercial is the opera singer ad – but fortunately, we don’t usually have to deal with it that often. And this commercial combines two things that go together like chocolate and Velcro: opera singing and financial services. Sure, they do a brilliant job of repeatedly screaming 877-CASH-NOW at you, and the Vikings do look professionally outfitted. And yes, it’s a rousing number that garnered considerable attention. But its success and proliferation may’ve been what killed it for many people. In its heyday, it was just impossible to avoid the Viking singer, and so a song that was once almost catchy becomes a total drag.

Before we reveal our top pick, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions.
Crown Crust Pizza
Pizza Hut

Talking Filet-O-Fish
McDonald’s

Giffing Out
Kmart

E*Trade Baby
E*TRADE

Flo
Progressive Corporation

No, the video isn’t being looped; that’s actually what they were going for. This topical product designed to relieve headaches put more well shot ads with bigger budgets to shame by creating one of the most memorable commercials ever – but, like, not in the good way. Repetition is a commonly used marketing method, but before HeadOn, no one had been so brazen as to use that technique as the only aspect of a commercial. The sheer genius of the ad can’t be understated because it could be argued that the brand has created a commercial that causes the very ailment its product claims to help relieve. How very meta.

Do you agree with our list? Which annoying commercials are forever etched into your subconscious? For more top 10s that are memorable for the right reasons, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.